. hello and thank you for joining us. i'm jc hayward. millions of people on the east coast are still reeling

from superstorm sandy. here is the latest information that we have. in our region, nearly 19,000 customers are still without power. in fact, bowie high school is closing because there is no power there. bge says 1,475 customers are without power. pepco has 1,518. virginia dominion says over 15,000 customers are without power. nationwide damage estimates from the storm could reach $20 billion. and at least 50 people were killed. today early voting resumes in washington, d.c. and also in maryland. and president obama will be landing in new jersey to survey the damage there. it appears that one coastal, new jersey town cannot seem to catch a break. crews had a hard time fighting a series of natural gas fires

because of flood waters and debris that superstorm sandy left behind. this is the very same area that caught fire two days ago and destroyed 14 homes. no injuries have been reported, however. we will have more on relief efforts in new jersey in just one minute. here at home, emergency officials have their eye on the potomac right now, even though we did not get the flooding that was accepted, the threat still remains. ko im is in alexandria live with a report on conditions there. ko? >> reporter: good afternoon, jc. what a treat for people here on king street at high tide this morning. no water came up and no need, no major need for these sandbags. the roads are reopened. the barricades put away for now. sunlight peeked through clouds and birds took to the sky, welcome sights in old town, alexandria saying goodbye to

superstorm sandy. this colorado woman is relieved. >> don't want to do it again. >> reporter: just puddles this morning on king street as residents waited to see what high tide would bring. so far at 10:00 nothing to report. and so the sandbags were shhoed away. high tide does return late tonight. as far as we know, halloween trick-or-treating should go smoothly here in alexandria, but emergency management officials are continuing to closely monitor the situation. we're live in old town alexandria, ko im, 9news. back to you. >> thank you, ko. the monocacy river in frederick county, maryland continues to show force. sky 9 is giving us a bird's eye view of just how high that

water is there. homes and trees are submerged and at the airport the power of the river flipped a plane. kristin fisher spent the morning surveying the damage. >> reporter: it's bad here but getting better. this is the monocacy river, the river that runs underneath i- 70, up through the national battlefield and up to write am now, pine cliff park. you can see this park still completely under water. this is the main roadway into the park. the water is up to the street sign. beyond that, there are three play grounds in this park, all of them partially subamericanned. farther to your right, you can see the red roof of one of seven pa ville beans in this -- pa villains in this park. all seven of them, the water is beyond the roof. there are five baseball fields completely under water. two men had to be rescued when their raft overturned upstream. they were rescued by the sheriff's department and

firefighters, brought to safety and we're told they're doing much better this morning. just to show you how dangerous these rising river waters can be and this sign says it all. park flooded. turn around. do not drown. now, it is getting better as i mentioned and when we first got out here at about 4:00 this morning, the river had just crested right at about 22 feet. you can see the leaves mashing the river line right -- leaves marking the river line right here. it's gone down quite a bit. as bad as it was, it's getting better n. is about 19 feet now. flood stage is 15 feet. so we still have 4 feet to go before we're beyond or below flood stage. and then several more hours before all this water is out of here. but our best guess is that we'll be below flood stage by late this afternoon and then a lot of cleanup has to be done here in pine cliff park. in frederick, kristin fisher,

9news now. two of the biggest airports serving new york, john f. kennedy and north liberty international have reopened following superstorm sandy. but let's take a look at the airports in our area. we sent jessica doyle to reagan national airport to get information. >> reporter: good afternoon. things are finally starting to get back to normal here at reagan national airport. the first flights of the day i'm happy to report got off on time, about six hours ago. but it could be several days before everything returns completely to normal. here's the reason why. take a walk with me. i want to show you this side of the tarmac. you can see two planes are prepared to take on their passengers. they're filling the slots over there. but on the other side of the tarmac, you'll see it is empty. the situation is the major carriers pulled their planes out of the washington area sunday night to get them out of the path of hurricane sandy and her 60 mile per hour wind gusts. they now have to rotate them

back into the airport here at reagan national. that could be a couple days to get everything back to normal. but i will tell you passengers who have tickets in hand today, they are very, very happy. >> i'm from florida. it's supposed to be that weather in florida, not here. tried to get out on sunday but there were no flights. rebooked monday. was canceled. rebooked tuesday. tuesday was canceled so i'm hoping i'm going home today. >> reporter: janice had a lot of company with the problems she's been experienced. 19,000 flights were canceled since sunday across the country. and the area of the new york- new jersey reason is still experiencing problems. you can see all these cans laces on the board -- cancellations on the board going to j.f.k., going to laguardia, going to newark, even though operations there are starting to slowly get back to normal. that's the reason why we're telling you you definitely want to check with your carrier before you head to the airport today because even to places

like chicago we're showing cancellations at this point. about a quarter of the flights here on the board still showing canceled so be sure to check before you head to the airport. reporting from reagan national airport, i'm jessica doyle, back to you. i'm 9news now meteorologist erica grow in for howard this noon. as you heard if kristin fisher's report just a minute or two ago, we still have major flooding happening on the monocacy river but things ever getting better -- are getting better. the crest happened at 2:00 a.m. now we're starting to see the river recede but flood stage at the monocacy at route 70 is 13 feet so we have quite a ways to go. the latest stage is about 18 feet so we still have to see those rivers go below 13 feet before they are back in their banks in the potomac at point of rocks, just a little bit north of the district, flood stage is 16 feet. we are expected to crest at 21 feet on wednesday or later on today at 8:00 p.m. that's moderate flooding. and we have to deal with some

issues in the tidal potomac area just south of the district looking at moderate flooding. so when high tide happens again at about 9:50 tonight, we will see some moderate flooding in that location. flood stage is 6 feet for the potomac at wisconsin avenue. taking a wide view here of satellite and radar, you can see we're pretty much done with the rain but there are a few scattered showers still lingering in the charlottesville area, down toward fredricksburg, virginia. 46 right now in leesburg. 49 in d.c. so it is still very chilly out there. coming up i'll give you more information about some flooding problems and a look at the weekend forecast. a preview is coming up. jc, back to you. >> thank you, erica. more than six and a half million homes and businesses in the united states remain without power in the aftermath of superstorm sandy. we're going to take a live look right now of seaside, new

jersey. devastated by the storms. president obama is going to tour the damage in new jersey later today. we have a report now from atlantic city. >> reporter: president obama will be getting a firsthand tour today of the massive damage sandy inflicted on new jersey. along the jersey shore, the superstorm washed away the pier at seaside heights leaving ferris wheels and roller coasters in the ocean. >> to see the steel you structures lying in the ocean, it gives you an idea how powerful the storm with us. >> reporter: the new jersey governor chris christie will ask the president for help rebuilding the beaches. >> we'll do what we can to rebuild as quickly as we can. >> reporter: cuisine foes are losing about $5 million a day. regulators plan to visit each casino today before deciding when they can reopen. the destruction is widespread across new jersey. in hoboken, streets are flooded. more than two million people across the state are without

power and new jersey's transit system is not running. analysts estimate sandy will cost $50 billion in damages and lost business, but there are signs the region is on the road to recovery. buses in new york city are running. the stock exchange is open for business and flights have started to resume at some area airports. cbs news, at atlantic city, new jersey. the storm may even impact next week's election. people rushed to maryland's early voting centers last weekend before they were closed because of the storm. today early voting resumes in the state of maryland and d.c. along with in person absentee voting in virginia. maryland governor martin o'malley has extended the deadline for absentee ballot applications until 8:00 tonight for applications received by mail or delivery and 11:59 p.m. for applications received by fax or e-mail.

applications should be sent to the local board of elections. >> opening up at 8:00 a.m. on the remaining early voting days, which is earlier than the usual 10:00 a.m., and we will be extending those hours all the way up until 9:00 p.m. >> governor o'malley says that state resources will help to get early voting running again in garrett county. sandy dumped more than 2 feet of snow in some of those areas. police are investigating a fatal pedestrian accident that occurred in germantown. sky 9 was over the scene where a teenager was killed on germantown road at west tear ya -- ways tear ya drive. the -- wisteria drive. the victim is 15-year-old christina morris ward, a tenth grader at seneca valley high school. the driver of the vehicle that

struck her remained on the scene. police say that ward was wearing dark clothing this morning and visibility may have been a factor in that accident. actor brad pitt is donating $100,000 to fight for same-sex marriage. an organization says that pitt has agreed to match its contributions from group members up to $100,000. same-sex marriage initiatives are on the ballot in maryland, maine, minnesota, and washington state. here's a quick and easy way that you can help hurricane victims. just like wusa9 on facebook. for every person, we'll donate $1 to the american red cross sandy relief fund.

9news now will continue in just a minute.

the carnival pride cruise ship is anchored in the chesapeake bay. sky 9 flew over the vessel yesterday. right now only the crew is aboard the ship. it left baltimore on sunday. it was headed to the bahamas but the captain was concerned about the weather and decided to drop anchor. the ship will move on once conditions improve. the historic hyannisport yacht club dock house in massachusetts is unfortunately gone. sandy knocked the structure right into the ocean. it was built in the 1940's. the building is famously known as the backdrop to many kennedy family sailing trips on

nantucket sound. officials are evaluating the damage and are considering rebuilding. coming up next, erica with our forecast.

i want to remind you again that if you like us on wusa9 on facebook, then we will donate a dollar to the american red cross sandy relief fund. so please like us on wusa9. let's take a look at our

weather now. >> it's definitely improving out there, jc. we are going to see lots of clouds today. a few sprinkles here and there. breezy conditions but of course the worst of sandy is over and done with. let's take a look at satellite and radar. you can see the few sprinkles and showers still showing up in garrett county -- showing up. and in garrett county, it's still snowing. we're not quite done with the snowfall in the mountains, especially west of the divide. some areas picked up as much as 3 feet of snow out of that system. but now you can see that the spinning action here with sandy is resigned to just a few showers, and we are pretty much done with the heavy rainfall. but we still do have flood warnings in effect and for some reason they're not showing up on the map but we have a flood warning in effect for the monocacy river all the way through maryland down into the d.c. area and the potomac river through the d.c. area and points north. and we could have some minor flooding on the tidal potomac. there are those warnings there

for the monocacy and also for the potomac river. we could have some minor tidal flooding later on today with high tide which happens between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. along the tidal potomac. it's 50 in baltimore but most spots still in the 40s. 46 martinsburg and winchester. 54 in easton and 52 in pax river right now. temperatures aren't going to budge very far from where they are at the moment and this is what it feels like when you combine the winds with the current temperature. feels like 34 in frederick. 44 in gaithersburg. feels like 52 in annapolis because the winds have settled down but 42 in winchester. definitely feeling december 'ish for halloween. a nice shot of the capitol building but still lots of clouds in place. only 49 degrees at reagan national and feels like 45 with the dew point of 38 and the winds at 9 miles per hour. a wide view of your satellite shows just how expansive sandy still is and we have another system approaching from the

pacific northwest that will impact us as we head into next week. but in the meantime sandy slowly lifts out of here. the remnants of sandy. and we will enjoy a pretty decent weekend i think. so we can look forward to that in our forecast. as we head through the rest of today, 51 in leesburg and gaithersburg. 54 in downtown d.c. and only 52 in fredricksburg and overnight tonight only dipping into the 40s downtown. 40 degrees in hagerstown and martinsburg because of the clouds helping to keep those temperatures in check. so over the next three days, we still have code yellow for today because of the high water but besides that we're in good shape. green lighted for both thursday and friday. we're going to look for those temperatures holding, though, in the 50s. and your seven-day forecast, don't forget to turn the clocks back next weekend. we get an extra hour of sleep. stay with us. 9 news now continues in just a few minutes.

i'm meteorologist erica grow. here's another look at your seven-day. it's still breezy today and tomorrow but the weather slowly but surely improving. we can't rule out a shower today. but it looks like we're dry for the next several days. don't forget to set those clocks back when you go to bed on saturday night. it's always nice to get that extra hour of sleep, isn't it? >> i always enjoy that. >> you can also see it's feeling very much like fall in there. temperatures remain in the 50s throughout the entire seven- day, except for sunday. looks like a pretty nice day. maybe a sprinkle with a high of 60 degrees. we're looking at a live picture now. that's air force one. president obama is boarding the plane. he's leaving washington, d.c. to go to seaside, new jersey. that was hit hard by sandy, devastating coastline, homes were destroyed, boardwalk was

destroyed. so the president has decided to go to new jersey to take a look at the devastation firsthand. and we'll have an updated report on 9news now beginning at 5:00. thank you so much for being with us.